Aiming Higher with AIN

AIN — a nonprofit that has been providing access to treatment, care, events, meals, and counseling to Dallas’s community of HIV-positive people for over 30 years — opened its new facility on Sept. 20th. Take a look around and learn more about them here.

The facility where a business is housed does not always matter to the employees working to make a difference; but in the case of AIN, it sure does help the experience. AIN — or Access & Information Network — is a growing not-for-profit 501(c)(3) organization that provides support to vulnerable, at-risk, and diagnosed individuals living with HIV in North Texas which has been growing in staff and volunteers for 32 years. Yet within that vast expanse of time, space has been limited as the number of individuals they wish to help has continually grown.

After sixteeen months of CEO Steven Pace working tirelessly to find a new space for AIN to grow in, the company moved into the new offices at 2600 North Stemmons Freeway, Suite 151 in Dallas, Texas. The move may have been a small one in terms of location movement, as the previous space for AIN was located across Stemmons Freeway from where they are now, but the new offices have placed AIN in the center of the Medical District in Dallas where it is much easier to access any doctors or medical offices that will be needed by clients of AIN. The Grand Opening Event of AIN’s new offices took place on September 20th, 2018 and was extremely well-attended by patrons, clients, and medical staff within the area.

The new office space is also having a huge effect on the staff and volunteers of AIN, as many members expressed how delighted they were with the spaciousness, layout, and organization of the new offices. Miranda Grant, Events and Volunteer Coordinator, was ecstatic when asked what she thought about the spaces:

“It’s such a large and inviting space, and in a wonderful location. Plus, I get my own office now, so that’s enough to make any employee happy!”

Many AIN employees expressed the same. Reginald Peoples, AIN’s Van Transportation Coordinator for clients, expressed that he was “impressed with the larger office” and that he will have “plenty of space to direct his drivers now.

The Grand Opening Event allowed outside patrons into AIN’s new headquarters to meet its staff, and everybody there was in high spirits. One might expect to see the staff of a company behave appropriately and to be friendly, but AIN’s staff, interns, and volunteers seemed absolutely genuine about how welcoming, inviting, and approachable they were. Each staff member took the time to explain their roll within AIN and allowed patrons to ask any questions we had about their positions, answering with full confidence and a bright smile.

As shown at the Grand Opening Event, the offices are larger than ever. Each staff member has plenty of room to conduct their job, and clients are welcomed into a professional and healthy-looking environment that takes their best interests to heart. Clients are offered new amenities with this new office space. There is a beautiful interfaith space for meditation, peace, and prayer, and clients have ample room for meeting with case managers privately. Across the parking lot — honestly only about a 40-yard walk — the new Daire Center will be complete in 4 to 6 weeks and will provide meals from the built-in kitchen, a sleeping area for those who have traveled from outside the immediate counties around Dallas-Fort Worth, and other non-medical support and therapy that all clients will have access to.

With this new office space in the center of the Medical District, AIN aims to make its staff and volunteers happier and more organized and aims to make an even bigger difference with their clients in the Dallas-Fort Worth area by offering amenities and counseling that they did not have the space for before. AIN is dedicated to serving the North Texas area by offering hope and helping create a world without HIV by putting its best foot forward within its new location and offices.

For more information about AIN, please visit www.AINDallas.org, or visit the offices during business hours from Monday to Friday 9:00 am to 5:00 pm at 2600 North Stemmons Freeway, Suite 151, Dallas, Texas 75207, and call (214) 943-4444 for inquiries and appointments.

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Christine “Chris” Muir is the Managing Editor for About Dallas. Chris has been writing since her fourth-grade teacher encouraged her to pursue it, and she graduated with a B.A. in English from Texas Christian University and is currently working on a City and Regional Planning Masters from University of Texas at Arlington. She is also an amateur Drag King who performs, when she can, with the H-Town Kings at Pearl Bar in Houston. Any free-time not spent writing for her numerous projects is spent working on her cosplays and crossplays for various comic and anime conventions around Texas and advocating for the LGBTQ community within fandom culture. She tries her hardest to live by her mantra: You’re going to be amazing. Chris lives and works out of Irving, Texas.